WANG Zhen-qin LI Xiao-hui

Abstract: As a new type of organization form, virtual enterprise is believed to have many theoretical advantages, but these advantages have not been fully shown in practice yet. The paper intends to analyze the causes and to propose ideas to solve the problem. Starting from the characteristics of virtual enterprise, the paper analyzes the factors hindering the practice of the virtual enterprises, evaluates the lack of existing models, and then comes to the conclusion that a unified, simplified model is more conducive to the realization of virtual enterprise according to the actual situation. Learning from the mechanism of enterprises cluster, the paper suggests a modeling framework for the new idea of virtual enterprise which is effective in operation. The main contributions of this modeling include: constitute a standardized operating platform to overcome the prime obstacle from the diversity of the partners for the practice of virtual enterprise; and set up a collaboration layer as the buffer mechanism between the partners and the database.

Key words: Virtual Enterprise; Enterprises Cluster; Modeling

doi : 10 . 3969 / j . issn . 1673 - 0194 . 2009 . 21 . 031

CLC number:F270.7Article character:AActicle ID:1673 - 0194(2009)21 - 0099- 03

1Introduction

As a new-type organization form responding to the customized demands, virtual enterprise (VE) is the temporary network of independent companies linked by information technology to share skills, cost, and access to another market. VE has many advantages in theory, such as rapid respond, agile operating organization and outstanding core competitiveness. With the organization form of VE adopted by more and more enterprises, some of the advantages have been shown in practice, but the gap between the actual operation and the theoretical results still exists. So it is necessary to design a new modeling framework for VE which can turn the theoretical results into reality more effectively.

2Literature Review

Modeling is one of the basic processes to construct the framework of VE, various solutions have been proposed from different perspectives. The model put forward firstly was mainly based on mult-agent mechanism. With the practice of VE, the feature-based collaborative design, as well as the model to support collaborative work were added into the study. Now the modeling ideas have become more diversified. From above models it can be seen that former studies were more concerned about the information technology got fully tapped and utilized in a VE. The information technology is a important factor, but it can't decide all. Actually, obstacles to the practice of VE did not originate from the technology itself, and more as a result of the framework style of the enterprise. Luis M pointed out that, lack of standard definition and trust mechanism makes the multi-agent model face a lot of difficulties in practice. And many models were for the period of the formation of VEs, implying that the communication between enterprises could meet the demand in the operating period, lack of consideration on the practice in the latter stage.

In addition, considering the operation of VE involves many small and medium-sized enterprises, if the model relies on complex technical support, it would bring obstacles to the access of these enterprises. Therefore, our research on the VE modeling lays stress on the practical merits of the model, and takes both unification and simplification into consideration on the basis of the characteristics of VE.

3The Characteristics of Virtual Enterprise and the Resulting Problems

Although there is no unanimous expression to the concept of VEs, it still can be seen from the definitions given by most of scholars that, partners, collaboration and information technology are the main elements of a virtual enterprise. According to the traditional enterprises, these three elements respectively belong to members, mechanism and infrastructure. The basic study of modeling is to analyze the sources of difficulties in the practice of VE.

The composing of members in VE is more complicated than in traditional enterprises. Firstly, diversity is the main feature of the members in VE. They could be enterprises, task teams, or even individuals, their respective organizational structure, operational methods and organizational culture are diversified. Secondly, the structure of members is loose and no strict hierarchy exists. Diversity and the loose structure make complexity become the principal problem VE need to face. And diversification of the information technology platform enables the adjustment of the structure correspondingly, which adds to this complexity. The complicated composition of VE, on the one hand offers abundant resources and enough adequate redundancy of regulation to respond the customized orders quickly, and makes VE from theory into a form of organization too. But on the other hand, the complexity of VE has brought many difficulties in practice.

Firstly, complicated enterprise form will bring differences in the type of VE, partners work, and the application of information platform. In this case, the infrastructure (information platform) and the work flow (business flow and information flow) are all lack of conformity and synchrony which affect the coordination of enterprises greatly and bring difficulties in the construction and the later operation of VE.

Secondly, for the detailed description and interpretation of this complexity, large and complex models were designed with the application of complicated theories which may bring barriers to small and medium-sized enterprises in practice. On the one hand, the management mechanism of small and medium-sized enterprises is relatively simple, when participate in the complicated mode of production, it is very easy to lose their original efficiency. On the other hand, the high-end technological platform makes many enterprises can not meet the requirements of information technology, for cost considerations, only to give up the opportunity to participate in virtual collaboration. Therefore, to improve the practicability of the VE model, simplification and conformity of the structure must be taken into account as the main factors.

The characteristics of VE and the resulting problems mentioned above are shown in the Figure 1.

4The Modeling Framework Based on Enterprises Clust er

Enterprises cluster is a form of cooperation, different from the VE, the collaborative partner in a enterprises cluster usually locate in the same geographical region, which makes the dependence on information technology is not very high. In addition, due to the enterprises close to one another in the cluster, it is easy to get information about others as well as to set up the coordination rules acceptable to all partners. Partners usually have a detailed understanding of each other based on long-term cooperation, so the risk is relatively low in this collaborative mechanism, it is also the reasons why enterprises cluster is relatively mature in the operation. Considering the practicality of the model, the unified cooperation platform in the cluster could be used for reference in the modeling for the VE, the segment needing to be expanded is to ameliorate the information technology and the collaborative mechanism. Based on the above ideas, this article suggests the modeling framework for VE(Figure 2).

(1) The Unified Collaborative Platform

As diversity is the major hindering factor in the modeling for VE, the unified platform in the enterprise cluster gives a creative thought to solve this problem. A standardized operating platform can eliminate the difference between the partners effectively, in which the keys are whether a reliable platform exists and who provides the platform. In the framework of multi-agent model, the brokers often act as the sponsor or leader of the VEs. This brings a dilemma, even if the brokers strive to be fair, the fact is that they always set up a platform partial to themselves intentionally or unintentionally. But this situation will be improved greatly when the decision-making gets extended from the broker to a standard database. Therefore, considering the efficiency of the overall industry in the long term, the sponsor of the database should be a government department or a trade association to ensure the generality and fairness of the platform.

(2) The Buffer Mechanism

On the standardized platform, enterprises willing to participate in the collaboration can log in the database to exchange information with other members. However, for self-protection, many enterprises are not willing to expose the information of production directly to the public platform. Therefore, the buffer mechanism between members and the database should also be taken into account in the modeling. A practicable plan is to set up a collaboration layer compatible with database in the technical design, which can serve as a converter between the database and the participants. And the collaboration layer can be seen as a buffer area where participants can filter those information unwilling to filter out and meet their needs of self-protection.

(3) The Possibility of Realization

The VE model based on the framework of enterprises cluster has a relatively simple structure. In addition, the database and collaboration platform can be formed by utilizing the existing internet / intranet or e-mail. It can save the investment in IT platform, partners can meet the requirement of technology just by partial adjustment of their network structure. Therefore, the possibility of the model into practice will be greatly enhanced.

5Conclusion and Future Research

Based on analysis of the characteristics of VE, this paper examines impediments that may hinder the practice of virtual operation, suggests that the main problem in realization of VE is complexity and diversity. Enlightened by the model of enterprises cluster, this paper proposes a new thought of modeling for VE which is more practical. Due to only the thought of modeling is put forward, the framework of VE is simplified and many of the coordination functions are loaded into the platform of public database, so the definition of the function of the public database platform, the specific process of information transmission as well as the technology infrastructure supporting for database and enterprises access, need a further research from technical perspective.

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